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Notes on Living Outside Cultural Norms. Reset the mind.

May 4th, 2015, 4am

The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake.1

Reset the mind - Reset ones priorities.

It takes much time, effort and patience to get to where we are now. A day driving, a night camping, a one hour ticket queue, a sardine-packed cablecar, a one hour bus ride, and a squeeze through crowds of tourists just to reach the starting point. Three and a half snowshoe and crampon hours later, here we are almost at the peak; our goal.

Not quite yet, my backpack feels like a rock and the endless complaining from Mr. Left and Mr. Right 2 is not helping. My climbing companions and the spectacular views have disappeared. All I can see, hear or think about is the next step… the next step… the next step…

The effort of working so hard on completing the goal can shrink your view and thoughts to such a focus where you can’t see or think anything. It’s quite the opposite of what you’d imagine. A sign of working too hard, it’s the same with creative work. If the focus is getting to the goal as quickly as possible, the ability to enjoy the spectacular view —the here and now— disappears.

Just hiking just working, not thinking not seeing.

We bore ourselves in order to earn money that we’ll later spend on trying to de-bore ourselves.3

A proposal of sorts to self.
In our digital copy-paste work environment, it’s ever more easy for new work to piggyback on the old. Yet, what would happen if on completion of each job, you delete all the files? Eliminating the option of using old, opening doors for new experiences and outcomes; bypassing the path of least resistance. We could argue that this copy-paste process saves time, but saves time for what? What better way to use time in the enjoyment of creating and discovering something unforeseen?

The time and effort spent getting to that point on the mountain and back again was the goal, not the peak. Process is the experience of creativity, give yourself the opportunity to explore.